WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 13: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) holds a news conference to announce their plan to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, at the U.S. Capitol March 13, 2013 in Washington, DC. Although Cruz and his fellow sponsors expect the legislation to fail, they believe it is an important survey of who supports health care reform. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Washington -- Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California, a senator for 20 years, clashed hotly with Tea Party-backed newcomer Ted Cruz of Texas on Thursday when the freshman lectured the veteran about the Constitution during a committee vote on Feinstein's assault weapons ban.

The ban passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 10-8 on a party-line vote and is not expected to survive the full Senate. Democratic defections are expected from states fond of guns, and the Republican-dominated House is unlikely to visit the topic.

But the vivid exchange between Feinstein and Cruz dramatized how three months to the day after the mass murder of 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn., Congress has no stomach for banning the class of weapons used in the massacre.

Decorum to combat

The Feinstein-Cruz clash also illuminated how the more decorous era of Feinstein's early Senate days, when she passed her first assault weapons ban on a simple majority vote, has yielded to a new generation of emboldened young conservatives such as Cruz who relish combat.

But after a riled Feinstein elicited an "ouch" from conservative Fox News, Cruz may have been bested.

The exchange occurred as Democrats fended off a series of weakening amendments by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who argued that citizens need assault weapons for self defense.

Cruz, a Harvard-trained lawyer who has argued before the Supreme Court, including participation in the landmark District of Columbia vs. Heller case that threw out a D.C. gun ban in 2008, interjected by admonishing Feinstein that "all of us should begin as our foundational document with the Constitution."

Banning books?

In mock deference, Cruz asked "the senior senator from California" whether she would "deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights" if Congress did the same thing to the First Amendment's freedom of speech protections that she contemplates with the Second Amendment's protection of the right to bear arms.

Bristling, Feinstein replied, "One, I am not a sixth-grader, senator." She said her bill specifically exempts 2,271 weapons by make and model.

"Is this not enough for the people in the United States?" she asked. "Do they need a bazooka?"

City Hall slayings

The Stanford-educated Feinstein, calling herself "reasonably well-educated," recalled her nine years as mayor of San Francisco that began when Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated. She was the first to discover Milk's body, slipping her finger into the bullet hole as she sought a pulse. It was a searing experience whose story she has recounted many times.

"I walked in, I saw people shot," Feinstein told Cruz. "I've looked at bodies that have been shot with these weapons. I've seen the bullets that implode. In Sandy Hook, youngsters were dismembered. ... I'm not a lawyer, but after 20 years I've been up close and personal to the Constitution. I have great respect for it."

Cruz said Feinstein had not answered his question. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., intervened by suggesting that Texas education boards ban books. At the same time, Feinstein, reminded by fellow Democrats, replied that the First Amendment does not protect child pornography.

The assault weapons legislation would ban 157 "military style" weapons and magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets. The ban excludes more than 2,000 weapons, antique guns, and all guns operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide.

It grandfathers assault weapons legally possessed on the day of enactment but would require a background check for their sale or transfer. The White House endorsed the bill, saying the weapons "have no place on our streets, in our schools, or threatening our law enforcement officers."